Mobility aids such as walkers, crutches, and wheelchairs, are well known. When one m has a temporary injury or more permanent infirmity, these devices are often helpful, or even indispensable, for millions of people who need assistance at moving around. Walkers provide an extra four points of support for a user through a pair of hand grips, greatly increasing stability while moving around. If one leg is injured, such as a broken bone or torn tendon, a pair of crutches can provide an extra pair of supports, through handles and underarm pads, so a user can move around without using the affected leg.
However, such devices suffer from serious limitations. To move, crutches because they have only two points of stability, typically require a stable, reasonably level surface with a good amount of friction to function. To use them, a user must typically make a repeated movement wherein the tips of the crutches are typically repeatedly raised and lowered in a forward movement. If a user is on a low friction surface, such as an icy sidewalk, or an uneven surface, such as a wooded path, the crutches may slip from under the user, or become unstable on an uneven surface, each time the crutches are moved. Each time the crutches are moved is an opportunity for an accident.
Crutches can become particularly perilous when having to traverse an uneven surface, such as a set of stairs. While moving up a set of stairs on crutches can be difficult, moving downward can be even more dangerous. Since there is no point of stability in front of the crutches, a user can easily lose balance and fall.
While walkers offer more stability than crutches, as they typically have four stability points rather than two, they have several limitations as well. Walkers, because of their more limited motion, can be much slower than crutches. Some people are reluctant to use walkers, particularly in a professional setting, because they may make them look weaker or more debilitated than they actually are. Further, walkers can be somewhat bulky when not needed, even the folding kind.
One solution, in theory, would be to take both types of mobility aids when going out, so that one could use crutches for faster movement and aesthetics over terrain amenable to faster movement, but then a walker for tougher, slicker, or more uneven terrain. However, this would require a user, who already has at least one mobility issue, to carry around multiple devices, somewhat defeating the purpose of mobility aids.
What is needed is single, easily portable mobility aid that addresses these issues by providing a way to effectively and quickly traverse multiple types of terrain.